Takaichi Faces Questions with Arrogance

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reluctantly appeared in the party leaders’ debate in the Diet. While opposition party leaders complained Takaichi’s negative attitude in explaining policies of her administration or her own scandal to the Diet, the prime minister insisted that she had been good enough. The opposition parties deepened their skepticisms against Takaichi government’s sense of responsibility for the Diet.

Article 66 of the Constitution of Japan stipulates that the Cabinet is collectively responsible for the Diet. This provision has been interpreted that the prime minister, the head of Cabinet, is obliged to answer any question of lawmakers whenever the Diet requests the prime minister to attend a meeting. That is why, for instance, the prime minister has to get an approval of the Diet to go abroad during the session of the Diet.

 

In a Diet discussion in June, Takaichi refused answering the question of the lawmakers on her election campaign’s defamation in social networking service and proposed submitting a statement instead of her attendance to meeting of a committee. It was her attempt to defy scrutiny on her scandal in the Diet.

 

In late June, the leading Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) began discussion of some bills, which were strongly supported by its coalition partner Japan Innovation Party, without consent of the opposition parties. This unilateral procedure caused firm protest of the opposition parties with boycott of all the discussion, and the schedule of the Diet delayed for a week at the final phase of the Diet session.

 

Takaichi’s appearance in the leaders’ debate was one of the conditions for opposition parties to normalize paralyzed Diet. The leader of Centrist Reform Alliance, Jun-ya Ogawa, urged Takaichi in the leaders’ discussion to make politics credible by sincerely answering critical questions. However, Takaichi stated that she had been attending the meeting for discussion whenever the Diet requested.

 

The leader of Democratic Party for the People, Yuichiro Tamaki, asked Takaichi to reconsider LDP’s idea of reducing consumption tax rate from 8 percent to 1, because it was far from reaching a consensus among the parties. Takaichi only expected that her government’s “national council” would draw a conclusion by early August. It was obvious that Takaichi refused answering question on how she thought about the issue.

 

The leader of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Shun-ichi Mizuoka, accused of Takaichi government’s bill of revised Imperial House Law as a maneuver. The bill includes giving sons of adopted male in former Imperial Family a status of succeeding to the throne of the Emperor, the idea which was not in the “unanimous opinion” of the Diet. Takaichi argues that the clause was inserted, because the unanimous opinion does not touch on it and current law allows it. As far as the discussion is about revision of current law, inserted clause needed to be examined based on substances of the revision.

 

It must be a tactic for her to insist on her own view of prime minister’s responsibility, not to answer the question which is inconvenient for her and to justify government’s maneuver. But the lack of sincerity in her attitude toward the Diet erode the status of the Diet as the highest organ of state power as the constitution provides.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

Defense Ministers Meet in Seoul

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more